Templum N.R. — Spectrum CCCXC: Transitio
After having a brief look at both the labels website, discogs, and the web in general- there real is zero information about who is involved with this project, how many members it consists of, and really any other information at tall. So I guess in a way this adds a little more mystery & edge to the release in hand, which really is best described as featuring two lengthy slices ritually psychedelic(mostly) pared back electronica / ritual ambient drift.
Before we get into the sonic meat of the release we must discuss the tapes packaging, as it’s one of the more fancy to appear on the label. The purple coloured & white label tape comes in a large over sized slim box-this features dark blue ink texts & ritual designs, on both its front & back. Inside the box we get a sheet of frayed around the edges grey/ green fabric which features screen printed mesh of shapes with other ritual emblem in the centre. There’s also four doubled sided postcards- on the front these feature glossy blue background which have a black & red, or orange & black ritual emblem inside. On there back you get lines of black & white symbols/ lines of text against a black back ground. An Aural Hypnox card, and a letter to subscribe to the Templum N.R. subscription services- which will get you sent through excusive audio tapes, paper news letters, and unequal artworks. The whole thing is ltd to just 91 copies.
So moving onto the sonic’s with-in, and on side A we have the track “Whispers Echo Into A Monolith”. This opens with very brooding & eerier mixture of deep synth drones drifts, and whistling/ wind bound texturing. At around the three minute mark the drift & ebb of the track starts to pick-up pace & depth- with a mix of drift & distant beat textures, weird stretched & amassed voice wails, and another layer of more space bound synth scaping. By the 5th minute a more firm & slowly pulsing synth pattern has appeared, and this creates quite a unbalancing/ psychedelic feel, as it moving at a different pace to the rest of the track- these elements only stay briefly. From here on in the collective add in all, then remove all manner of weird, tripped-out, yet always fairly subtle elements- such as looped chatter, distant see-sewing electronics, to more pulsing synth patterns, swarms of distant ritual ringing, reduced tribal percussion, and beyond. Through-out the whole thing has a wonderfully lose, hazed & psychedelic drifting like feel to , with only the opening elements been the only consistent element.
Flipping over to side B, and we have the track "The Glow Breathed Out From The Aphotic Deeps". This track opens up with rapid then drifting darts of like gong hits- these rather brought to mind the sound of more agitated water buoys. With-in a minute or so we have sweeps of eerier harmonic ambience appearing- but fairly soon the whole thing gets over taken by a more graceful yet very foreboding synth string element. Behind the main synth string element melody, there are thinner & pared back loops of slight off pattern synth tones/ drone, and this creates this great feeling dark ornate-ness, with an under carriage of ritually psychedelic unease. Around the 13 minute mark a more consistent & bass tipped electo drum texture is added to this mix, as the other elements seem to nicely blur & merge to create a hypnotic up-beat elector ritual ambient crescendo. In it’s last few mintues the whole things drifts back to just the errier melody line looped over & over that slow fades back & back
All in all I must say I was both taken by the two tracks here, and the great packaging, which adds more classy mystery to the whole thing. If you enjoy say Coil or Cyclobe at their more woozy, psychedelic, and hazily ritual I can see you really enjoy Spectrum CCCXC: Transitio. I very much look forward to hearing more from this project in the near future.